Archaeologists have uncovered an "extraordinary" mosaic that would've been used as the floor of a public building during the Byzantine Period in what is today Israel, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced.
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Stunning Byzantine mosaic uncovered in Israel
Posted by gbudavid (#4) 5 days ago (http://www.foxnews.com)
Archaeologists have uncovered an "extraordinary" mosaic that would've been used as the floor of a public building during the Byzantine Period in what is today Israel, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced.
`The enemy of my enemy is my friend........`
Posted by Mortis (#2) 6 days ago (http://www.thedailybeast.com)
WWII- Battle at Schloss Itter, where Americans and Germans fought together...
"The battle for the fairytale, 13th century Castle Itter was the only time in WWII that American and German troops joined forces in combat, and it was also the only time in American history that U.S. troops defended a medieval castle against sustained attack by enemy forces......"
Lynchburg - Hang in There
Posted by Pernicious (#1) 10 days ago (http://magicalhystorytour.blogspot.com)
There’s James, John, Charles and William. All Lynches.1 All subjects of tangled etymological debate. Though the derivative of ‘lynch’ is not clear, even now—a testament, perhaps, to the limitations of academic discourse—William is the most probable source of the word, and, indeed, the deed.
By September l780 William Lynch had seen enough lawlessness. For the past four years most folks, particularly the local authorities, had been lending a hand (or two) to General George Washington, who was out to prove to all the king’s men that we were worthy of being an independent country, not just a lowly colony.
All pretenses of law enforcement fell apart in their absence. Even if the accused were apprehended, their cronies all-too-often liberated them en route, and since the courts were so far away and so ineffective, few witnesses bothered to testify.
Lynch drafted a contract that he presented to his Virginia neighbors. He worked in an appropriate number of ‘whereases’ and ‘hithertoes’ before explaining that:
Woodrow Wilson proclaims the first Mother's Day holiday
Posted by Pernicious (#1) 10 days ago (http://www.history.com)
On this day in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issues a presidential proclamation that officially establishes the first national Mother's Day holiday to celebrate America's mothers.
The idea for a "Mother's Day" is credited by some to Julia Ward Howe (1872) and by others to Anna Jarvis (1907), who both suggested a holiday dedicated to a day of peace. Many individual states celebrated Mother's Day by 1911, but it was not until Wilson lobbied Congress in 1914 that Mother's Day was officially set on the second Sunday of every May. In his first Mother's Day proclamation, Wilson stated that the holiday offered a chance to "[publicly express] our love and reverence for the mothers of our country."
In 2002, President George W. Bush echoed Wilson's sentiments by acknowledging mothers in his official statement on Mother's Day in 2002. He commended foster mothers as well as his own "fabulous mother" for their "love and sacrifice." He also mentioned past presidents' expressions of appreciation for their mothers. He quoted John Quincy Adams as having said "all that I am my mother made me" and Abraham Lincoln's sentiment that "all that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother ?[my mother's prayers] have clung to me all my life." Bush's own mother, Barbara, was a popular first lady when the elder Bush served as president from 1989 to 1992.
For centuries, Mexico's ancient city of Teotihuacan has concealed a mysterious secret, only recently revealed by the help of robots equipped with lasers and infrared cameras.
The small, remote-controlled devices have explored several rooms beneath the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, a structure described by Discovery as a "six-level pyramid decorated with snake-like creatures." The probes revealed hundreds of mysterious yellow orbs that range from four to 12 centimeters across. Indiana Jones would most certainly approve.
Scientists find evidence of cannibalism at Jamestown settlement
Posted by Pernicious (#1) 18 days ago (http://www.foxnews.com)
WASHINGTON – Scientists revealed Wednesday that they have found the first solid archaeological evidence that some of the earliest American colonists at Jamestown, Va., survived harsh conditions by turning to cannibalism.
For years, there have been tales of people in the first permanent English settlement in America eating dogs, cats, rats, mice, snakes and shoe leather to stave off starvation. There were also written accounts of settlers eating their own dead, but archaeologists had been skeptical of those stories.
But now, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and archaeologists from Jamestown are announcing the discovery of the bones of a 14-year-old girl that show clear signs that she was cannibalized. Evidence indicates clumsy chops to the body and head of the girl, who appears to have already been dead at the time.
'Now whether she was better roasted, boiled or carbonado'd [barbecued], I know not.'
- Capt. John Smith, the colony's most famous leader
Smithsonian forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley said the human remains date back to a deadly winter known as the "starving time" in Jamestown from 1609 to 1610. Hundreds died during the period. Scientists have said the settlers likely arrived during the worst drought in 800 years, bringing severe food shortages for the 6,000 people who lived at Jamestown between 1607 and 1625.
The historical record is chilling. Early Jamestown colony leader George Percy wrote of a "world of miseries," that included digging up corpses from their graves to eat when there was nothing else. "Nothing was spared to maintain life," he wrote.
Armenia was a trendsetter when it came to Christianity. The country adopted that faith in 301 A.D. This was even before the formation of the Holy Roman Empire. For centuries the Armenian people built a healthy and prosperous country. However, in the 15th century, the Ottoman Empire absorbed Armenia and the Armenians. The non-Muslim Armenians were classified as “infidels” and had to pay higher taxes and saddled with fewer rights than Muslims.
The Ottoman Empire stayed dominant in the region through the 19th century and into the early part of the 20th century. But in the late 1890s, Armenians were growing tired of their status as second class citizens and continued their push for more rights. In 1894, that push was met with a violent response from the Sultan who turned loose his private army on the Armenians. In the ensuing battles between 1894-96, it was reported that as many as 200,000 Armenians were killed by Sultan Abdul Hamid’s troops in what has been called the Hamidian Massacre. However, the killing of the 200,000 Armenian Christians was nothing compared to the 1915 genocide.
What led to the near extermination of the Armenians? It appears a combination of a few factors were working together to create a rabid form of Turkish nationalism that saw the Armenians as the enemies of the state. After all, the non-Muslims were officially considered “infidels” in the eyes of the Turks.
In 1908, a group of young Turks forced the Sultan out and took control of the government. At first they talked of bringing new freedoms to the Armenian people. Unfortunately, those freedoms never were granted by the ruling “Young Turks.” Instead the Armenians were seen as a threat to the shrinking Ottoman Empire.
1912-13 had the Turks losing huge chunks of their land to Christian regions that were breaking away. Greece, Bulgaria, and Serbia were all successful in their efforts to leave the Ottoman Empire. This was a devastating loss of power to the Turks and was the spark for
Astoria police department's concrete pig gets makeover
Posted by gbudavid (#4) 24 days ago (http://www.oregonlive.com)
The Astoria Police Department's concrete pig is back in the pink and ready for another 20 years of duty.
Comanche Station
Posted by gbudavid (#4) 27 days ago (http://floppingaces.net)
Comanche Station
The Voyage of Discovery, led by Lewis and Clark in 1803, took three years to travel to the West Coast and back. There was a desire to shorten the time for continental travel and mail delivery; the stagecoach was the logical choice, but the logistics were almost overwhelming. There would need to be blacksmiths, harness makers, drivers and conductors, and many way stations. Horse feed was an overwhelming problem; horses need a minimum thirty pounds of forage a day to maintain their health. When hundreds or thousands of horses are using the same limited pasture, the natural graze begins to disappear. Yet the relentless stream of coaches continued to arrive at way stations, looking for fresh well-fed horses and possibly a hot meal.
Confusing the Czech Republic with Chechnya
Posted by dtwentytwenty (#11) 29 days ago (http://motorcitytimes.com)
It’s funny because it’s true… Low Information Voters aren’t very good at geography
Apr 14, 1865: President Lincoln is shot
Posted by Pernicious (#1) 35 days ago (http://www.history.com)
At Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer, fatally wounds President Abraham Lincoln. The attack came only five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army at Appomattox, effectively ending the American Civil War.
Booth, who remained in the North during the war despite his Confederate sympathies, initially plotted to capture President Lincoln and take him to Richmond, the Confederate capital. However, on March 20, 1865, the day of the planned kidnapping, the president failed to appear at the spot where Booth and his six fellow conspirators lay in wait. Two weeks later, Richmond fell to Union forces. In April, with Confederate armies near collapse across the South, Booth hatched a desperate plan to save the Confederacy.
Learning that Lincoln was to attend Laura Keene's acclaimed performance in Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater on April 14, Booth plotted the simultaneous assassination of Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William H. Seward. By murdering the president and two of his possible successors, Booth and his conspirators hoped to throw the U.S. government into a paralyzing disarray.
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